US to charge alleged bombmaker in Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie terrorist attack

Oliver O'Connell
A policeman walks away from the damaged cockpit of the 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland (AFP via Getty Images)
A policeman walks away from the damaged cockpit of the 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland (AFP via Getty Images)

The Justice Department will announce charges on Monday against a Libyan man alleged to have constructed the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.

Sources told CNN that charges will be filed against Abu Agila Masud, 32 years to the day after the attack on the Boeing 747 en route from London to New York in the run-up to Christmas.

It will be one of Attorney General William Barr's final acts as the head of the department. When he informed Donald Trump of his resignation last week, Mr Barr asked to delay his departure by a week so he could announce the Lockerbie charges.

During his earlier stint in government under George W Bush, Mr Barr tasked the then-criminal division chief, Robert Mueller, to investigate the bombing.

The two men have appeared at annual remembrance ceremonies over the years with the families of the victims.

During the Bush administration, Mr Barr announced charges against two other Libyan intelligence-linked men, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah. The US accused them of placing explosives in a portable cassette player packed inside a suitcase on the plane.

Due to the difficulty in bringing them to the US for trial, they were instead tried by a Scottish court in the Netherlands.

Mr Fhimah was acquitted, but Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison. A cancer diagnosis saw him released and he died in 2012.

A news conference is scheduled for Monday morning.

More to follow…

Latest Stories

  • The CEO of a voting-systems company says politicians around the world are worried that Trump's conspiracy theories will be used to undermine their own elections

    Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica also said he is considering suing media networks that have spread baseless conspiracy theories about his company.

  • Biden Press Secretary Says He ‘Will Not Be Discussing an Investigation of His Son’ with AG Candidates

    President-elect Joe Biden will not be discussing any federal investigation of his son Hunter Biden's business dealings with any candidates for attorney general, Biden's incoming press secretary said Sunday.Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace whether Biden would promise to allow the U.S. attorney for Delaware to proceed with an investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes.“He will not be discussing an investigation of his son with any attorney general candidates. He will not be discussing it with anyone he is considering for the role. And he will not be discussing it with a future attorney general,” Psaki said.“It will be up to the purview of an attorney general in his administration to determine how to handle any investigation,” continued Psaki, who previously served as former president Barack Obama's communications director. “As you know, U.S. attorneys, that’s a personnel decision, we’re far from there at this point in the process.”Earlier this month, Hunter Biden announced that federal prosecutors were investigating his “tax affairs” but insisted he has handled his finances appropriately.“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” the younger Biden said of the federal probe in a statement.The former vice president addressed the investigation for the first time last week, saying he is “confident” his son did nothing wrong.Psaki noted that several positions in the administration have yet to be filled and that the administration would “allow the process to work how it should, which is for a Justice Department to be run independently by the attorney general at the top.”

  • UAE top diplomat acknowledges visa restrictions on Pakistan

    The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat has publicly acknowledged a so-far unexplained ban on visitors from Pakistan, which travel agents say also targets tourists and laborers from a dozen Muslim-majority countries amid the pandemic and the UAE's normalization of ties with Israel. Following a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed “the temporary nature of recent restrictions imposed on the issuance of visas due to the outbreak of COVID-19,” the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported Sunday.

  • Mega-church pastor positive with Covid after White House Christmas party

    Pastor was missing from service on Sunday

  • Trump administration cuts size of Arctic land offered for oil auction

    In a last-minute change, the Trump administration cut about 30 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge territory that it plans to auction off for oil exploration. The decision was announced late Friday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency managing the oil lease sale. The ANWR lease sale is scheduled for Jan. 6, but under the BLM’s plan, companies may submit bids starting on Monday.

  • Putin publicly praises Russian intelligence agency implicated in massive U.S. government hack

    Russia officially denies responsibility for the massive, ongoing cyber hack of U.S. government and business networks, despite growing evidence its SVR foreign intelligence service carried out the sophisticated breach. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin left his COVID-19 bubble to speak at the 100th anniversary of the SVR's founding, and amid his general praise for Russian security services and the SVR specifically, he slipped in some laudatory words for counterintelligence operations, according to a translation shared by the Kremlin.> Vladimir Putin visited Foreign Intelligence Service headquarters and congratulated security agency personnel on their professional holiday https://t.co/TJ4dkOducY pic.twitter.com/9dIXkiUdz1> > — President of Russia (@KremlinRussia_E) December 20, 2020"I know what I'm talking about here," said Putin, a former agent of the KGB, the SVR's predecessor. "And I rate very highly the difficult professional operations that have been conducted."U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that Russia is "pretty clearly" responsible for the "very significant" cyber breach, and "White House officials had drafted a statement to be released Friday accusing Moscow of carrying out the cyber intrusions in a months-long campaign, but they were blocked from doing so," The Washington Post reports, citing a senior administration official. President Trump tweeted his first comments on the cyber attack Saturday, bizarrely suggesting that maybe China was to blame."Trump's aversion to calling out the Kremlin for its malign activities in cyberspace and his deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a hallmark of his presidency," the Post notes.Trump "behaves so much like a paid Russian agent," says Gregory Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council. "If you look at the string of his actions and pronouncements," he added, "the only consistent interpretation that you can logically draw is that he's in their thrall." Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, agreed. "Starting with Trump's very first meeting with Putin to today's tweets we've seen an almost unbreakable pattern of denying the obvious about Russia's misdeeds while carrying water for the Kremlin," he told the Post.More stories from theweek.com Arizona GOP chair urges Trump to heed Flynn and 'cross the Rubicon,' alarming people who get the reference 5 insanely funny cartoons about Trump's election-fraud failure $900 billion relief package extends moratorium on evictions, weekly unemployment benefits

  • 'We must mobilise so it stops': Miss France runner-up hit by torrent of online anti-Semitism

    The runner-up in this year's Miss France beauty contest said it was disheartening to see that “we are still here in 2020” in response to a barrage of anti-Semitic abuse she received online after mentioning that her father was Israeli. Paris prosecutors on Monday said they had opened an inquiry into "racist insults and provoking racial hatred” against April Benayoum, 21, who is reigning Miss Provence and came second in the national pageant on Saturday night. The offence of publishing anti-Semitic remarks carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a €45,000 (£41,000) fine. Among the 40,000 tweets citing Miss Provence and Israel on Saturday night, one read "Hitler forgot about this one" and another "Don't vote for a Jew". The slurs marred an event watched by more than eight million people on TF1, France’s biggest TV channel. Reacting for the first time to the insults, Ms Benayoum, who is studying marketing in Aix, told regional newspaper La Provence: “We must mobilise so that it stops." “I didn’t try and provoke anyone at all. France is a cosmopolitan country. The “Miss” come from different origins, cultures and regions and that’s what makes this contest beautiful.” She told Nice-Matin, another regional paper, that despite the violence of the insults, they “don’t affect me at all”.

  • Longtime Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Abrahamson dies

    Shirley Abrahamson, the longest-serving Wisconsin Supreme Court justice in state history and the first woman to serve on the high court, has died. Abrahamson, who also served as chief justice for a record 19 years, died Saturday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her son Dan Abrahamson told The Associated Press on Sunday. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement that Abrahamson had a “larger-than-life impact” on the state's legal profession and her legacy is defined “not just by being a first, but her life’s work of ensuring she would not be the last, paving and lighting the way for the many women and others who would come after her.”

  • McConnell says deal reached on $900 billion virus relief bill

    Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that an agreement had been reached by congressional leaders of both parties on a roughly $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill.

  • Biden’s niece avoids prison time for driving under the influence crash

    Caroline Biden’s arraignment was one day after 3 November’s presidential election

  • $900 billion relief package extends moratorium on evictions, weekly unemployment benefits

    After months of negotiations, congressional leaders finally announced on Sunday they reached an agreement on a $900 billion economic relief package, which includes $600 direct payments to Americans, aid for small businesses, and an extension of the moratorium on evictions that was set to expire at the end of the year.The news comes as the country deals with a surge in coronavirus cases and overwhelmed hospitals, but also increased vaccine distribution to health care workers and nursing home residents.According to summaries from Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, The Washington Post reports, the coronavirus relief bill includes $600 stimulus checks per person, including children, for people earning less than $75,000 in the 2019 tax year. The size of the check drops for those who earned between $75,000 and $99,000, and goes away completely for those who made more than $99,000.The legislation extends supplemental unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week and a program for contract and gig workers. It also includes more than $284 billion to cover first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans and expands PPP eligibility to news organizations and nonprofits. Independent movie theaters and cultural institutions will also receive $15 billion, and a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House was approved, despite objections from Democrats.The package extends the moratorium on evictions until Jan. 31 and provides $25 billion in emergency assistance to renters, but the Post notes it's unclear at this time how the funding will be distributed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the bill sets aside billions of dollars "specifically for combating the disparities facing communities of color, and to support our heroic health-care workers and providers."The agreement also includes $13 billion in increased food stamps and nutrition benefits, $16 billion for airline employee and contractor payroll support, $20 billion to purchase vaccines, and $82 billion for schools to replace and repair heating and air conditioning units in order to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. It does not call for any new money for state and local governments or hazard pay for essential workers. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com Arizona GOP chair urges Trump to heed Flynn and 'cross the Rubicon,' alarming people who get the reference Putin publicly praises Russian intelligence agency implicated in massive U.S. government hack 5 insanely funny cartoons about Trump's election-fraud failure

  • A North Korean fisherman was publicly executed for listening to foreign radio stations at sea, Radio Free Asia report says

    The man, known by his surname, Choi, and said to be in his 40s, was killed by firing squad in front of 100 boat captains and fisheries executives.

  • Amid freed Nigeria schoolboys' joyful reunions, fear lingers

    Nigeria's freed schoolboys have reunited with their joyful parents after being held captive for nearly a week by gunmen allied with jihadist rebels in the country’s northwest. Relieved parents hugged their sons tightly on Saturday in Kankara, where more than 340 boys were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School on the night of Dec. 11. More boys went to their homes further away in Katsina state.

  • Trump campaign will again ask U.S. high court to upend election results

    President Donald Trump's campaign said on Sunday it would again ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn results from the Nov. 3 election, its latest long-shot effort to subvert the electoral process and sow doubt over the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. In a statement issued by the campaign, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the campaign had filed a petition asking the high court to reverse three rulings by a Pennsylvania state court interpreting the state's rules for mail-in ballots. “The Campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud," Giuliani said in a statement.

  • Yemen doctors call for urgent help to save life of conjoined twins in need of surgery

    Conjoined twin boys who were born in war-torn Yemen on Wednesday are in “critical condition”, according to their doctors who are urgently appealing for help. The boys were born in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, which since 2014 has been controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Over years of war and air blockades, like much of the rest of the country, it’s economy and healthcare system have been destroyed. "An echocardiogram showed that each of the two children had their own heart, though the position of the heart of one of them is not normal," Majda al-Khatib, the director of Al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, told AFP news agency. She added that the hospital did not have the necessary equipment to accurately determine "which organs are connected". The war in Yemen has resulted in what the UN describe as the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster, with the country of 30 million plagued by conflict, starvation, disease and now coronavirus. The current conditions of hospitals in Sanaa make dealing with complex cases such as conjoined twins almost an impossibility. Making access to treatment more difficult, Sanaa’s airport is closed for commercial flights because of an air blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition, who have been waging war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Houthis, since 2015.

  • A Silicon Valley startup founder moved to Austin to flee San Francisco's high housing costs and said 'FOMO' will prompt more in the 'hive-minded' Bay to move to newer tech hubs

    Ben Rahnema moved out of a cramped San Francisco apartment and into a 3-bedroom Austin home in November, as more tech talent leaves Silicon Valley.

  • Pete Davidson says he wishes Cazzie David 'nothing but the best' after she published an essay about their breakup

    In an interview with Insider, the "SNL" cast member shared his thoughts on what his ex wrote about their relationship in "No One Asked for This."

  • Sheriff: Man arrested on cross-country trip with girl, 12

    Nathan Larson, 40, made the girl wear a long-haired wig to make her look older and told her to pretend to be mute during their travel, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims announced on Saturday. Mims said detectives learned that Larson, a resident of Catlett, Virginia, met the girl previously through social media, flew to California and persuaded her to sneak out of her house around 2 a.m. Monday. Larson was taken into custody and the girl was rescued by a Denver police officer who stopped the pair during their layover in Colorado, Mims said.

  • More than 300,000 Trump supporters plan to join virtual ‘second inauguration’ event on 20 January

    One of the hosts of the event is Evi Kokalari, who was part of the Trump campaign in 2020

  • No need to panic over new UK coronavirus strain, says India's health minister

    India's health authorities remain vigilant and prepared to deal with a new more transmissible strain of the coronavirus identified in Britain, the country's health minister said on Monday, adding that there was no need to panic. India has recorded the world's second highest number of infections and breached the 10 million case milestone over the weekend. "If you ask me, there is no reason for such panic," India's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press briefing in New Delhi.